June and Walt Affleck

Yesterday Lainey sent me (thanks Olivia!) this very funny piece from Elizabeth Banks’ website titled Parenting Tips From Natasha Leggero -- click here to read it. (Tip 10: Don’t get pregnant for the glow. DO get pregnant to stop smoking or get off cocaine.)

Elizabeth Banks has two kids and I’ve written about my love for her before, but really, any person – yes person, not just mom – would have be humourless not to laugh at Leggero’s piece (White American children should not call their dad “Papa”). What is hugely missing from the celebrity parenting narrative is absurdity– not cute onesies that say “Nobody puts baby in a corner” but really funny, sharp commentary on parenting, like Louis CK’s bit on how kids never shut up. (Really, a conversation with a 6-year-old is exhausting.)

Isn’t this way more fun than having to hear yet another story of a new celebrity mom’s hopes and dreams for her baby (spoiler alert: she wants her baby to be happy and healthy)? But there’s not a lot of room (or demand?) for funny moms. Sweet, yes. We get piles of toothy grins and attentive playground shots, but not a lot of self-deprecating wit, which is weird because moms, collectively, are a mess. I am one of them. Tina Fey has touched on it, but there’s so much more. But for the most part, instead of some good deadpan snark, we get dimples.

And the leader of the sneakers-and-jeans crew, the undisputed mom of the moment, is Jennifer Garner. I’ve said before that she does not get enough credit for her husband’s success – clearly the formula of “the woman behind the man” is working. But with Jen going back to work, Ben Affleck is now going to play Mr. Mom, as he said at a recent event. (Source)

First off, in what decade can we retire this term? It’s called Parenting, not Mommying. Lots of dads stay home and/or parent as actively as the mom. Some kids have families without moms. It’s just so… antiquated.

But that’s the Afflecks, no? They’ve beat us over the head with their “traditional” life; they want us to know how happy Jen is to stay at home and how Ben is a Mad Men-style provider and man. Great! Lean in, lean forward, lean back –whatever works for your family. But I could do without the June and Walt Cleaver act, which is supposed to be charming because Ben will probably cock up at home and put a diaper on the dog and burn water… come on, you know that anecdote is coming.

What do you think they would think of the Leggero piece on Elizbabeth Banks’s blog? You think Ben would laugh? Would Jen laugh???